Exercise devices, and in particular weight training machines, typically include a mechanical member that the user repeatedly moves along a prescribed path for exercise. Conventionally, movement of the mechanical member is resisted in some fashion (often by weights) to render the movement more difficult and thereby intensify the exercise. The movement of the mechanical member determines what muscle or muscle groups are to be involved in the exercise.
One popular exercise movement for weight training is the “pull-down” motion, in which a seated exerciser extends his arms over his head to grasp a handle or other grasping device and pulls the handle downwardly toward his shoulders. This movement (often termed a “lat pulldown”) can be performed by pulling the handle to a position in front of or behind the exerciser's neck, and can be performed with the hands relatively close together or spread apart wider than the shoulders. This exercise movement tends to work the muscles of the upper arms and shoulders (such as the biceps and deltoids), the neck and back (such as the trapezius, the rhomboids, and the latissimus dorsi), the pectoralis major, and the teres major.
In one type of lat pulldown machine, the handles grasped by the exerciser are either attached at the end of a cable or belt (often it is a single handle that is grasped with both hands). This configuration enables the user to pull downwardly with both hands at once, usually with the hands oriented so that the palms are either facing each other or pronated 90 degrees from facing each other. However, with a single handle the user must have both hands oriented in the same direction, and the placement of the hands on the handle defines the vertical plane in which the hands move during the exercise (i.e., the direction of movement of the cable or belt).
Another type of lat pulldown machine has one or two pivoting movement arms to which the grasping handles are attached. This type of machine typically has only a single path of motion available for exercise, and is often limited to a single orientation of the hands during grasping.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a lat pulldown machine that can provide multiple orientations of the hands and multiple vertical planes of movement during exercise, as doing so can exercise different muscles or portions thereof.